European Development Days focus on helping poor

Against a background of big government budget cuts, thousands of international aid experts have been meeting to discuss how Europe can better help the world’s poorer countries.

The European Development Days forum in Brussels was hosted by the European Commission and the Belgian EU presidency.

The EU, along with its member countries, is the world’s biggest aid donor, contributing 50 billion euros.

But Dirk Elsen, the head of Dutch non-profit international development organisation SNV, told euronews it must be used correctly: “We sometimes in the West think, ‘OK we have all our solutions worked out so let’s just bring them to developing countries!’ It doesn’t work that way. People have to identify and develop their own solutions.”

He also described one of the projects SNV is involved with: “We have been working since the early 90s on bio-gas solutions, which is basically when you use goat and cow dung, it turns into gas and you can feed your family off it, you can cook with it, you can basically light your house with it.”

And even during the economic downturn, a recent survey found nine out of 10 Europeans believe development aid is very or fairly important.

Half of those questioned said the EU should honour its commitment to increase aid.

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